When I attended the Sarasota Chamber’s State of the Community series, featuring Superintendent Terry Connor, I thought my follow-up blog post would be a summary of all he shared. But throughout the information being shared, I couldn’t stop thinking about one thing.

Like many of you, I’ve watched the finger-pointing go in every direction when it comes to our district’s financial strain—vouchers, charter schools, district leadership, the tax collector. Blame is everywhere, but clarity is nowhere. No one can seem to agree on where the problem actually ends, let alone where a real solution begins.

So instead of a summary of all of the systemic failures and programmatic efforts to keep our district strong, I’d like to attempt a math problem that answers the question: what could have stopped our district from surplussing first year teachers and more?

Because I just can’t stop thinking about it.

I have previously summarized the major financial stressors that brought our district in this place. But I haven’t really dug in to find out where we could have – and if we could have – avoided this disruption to our students’ year, our teachers’ careers, and our district’s ability to maintain excellence when costs remain high while funding drops. I really can’t stop thinking about that. So let’s go:

First, a disclaimer: I am not a mathematician or a statistician. Obviously. These numbers are based on rough estimates and I welcome a correction that will bring us closer to the actual answers.

Methodology: I took the financial stressors and categorized them (see below). Then I figured out the cost of a teacher’s salary + benefits using a best guess and Chat GPT. Then I divided the cost of the financial stressor (that may or may not have played a role in a decreased budget line for teacher salaries) by the teacher’s (assumed) salary.

Categories:

• Cost of Administrators at the district* = $  4,961,984.00
• Cost of Vouchers in the 25-26 school year = Depends how you look at it, I guess. So let’s look at it:
  • $45 million total went from the state to students/families in Sarasota County as voucher recipients
    • ~70 of students new to using the voucher were already enrolled in private schools, according to Step Up for Students, the nonprofit in charge of the scholarships = ~$31.5 million
    • ~30% of students using the voucher left public schools(?) = ~13.5 million
• Cost of unbudgeted commission on education referendum: $2.2 million
• Number of surplussed teachers: 180+
• Number of cut classified staff positions: 79 (classified staff positions = custodians, food service workers, and IT professionals)

*As of Oct 25 according to these graphics on this page

So how many teachers could each of them potentially fund?

The exercise below assumes: $77,500/teacher, including salary and benefits
(Salary: ~$55,000–$60,000 + Benefits: ~$15,000–$20,000) = Total per teacher: ~ $75,000–$80,000

$4,961,984 could fund	64 teachers
$45 million to public schools could fund	580 teachers
$13.5 million to public schools could fund	174 teachers
$31.5 million from students who never attended a public school back to public schools could fund	406.5 teachers
2.2 million back to public schools could fund	18 teachers

Very quickly, I realized why no one has really done this. It isn’t good math or even real math. Most of all, it’s incredibly unfair math.

It doesn’t include additional benefits to our district-level leaders, the rising costs of health insurance, declining enrollment, or that we have 2 previously planned schools to fill. It doesn’t address the cost to our students if we have a poorly paid and understaffed district. (Note: Positive some loss in the district level budget could come without a cost to our children, but that’s not for me to decide).

It doesn’t clarify where that $31.5M was before vouchers; the 70% of students reflected in those costs were not public school students. (TBH that is what we should be screaming about though. Anyway, I digress.)

It doesn’t clarify how many go to private schools like TCA or private schools like Star Lab or Sea of Strengths Academy. (Because I’m really 100% okay with my tax dollars going to families so they can be at schools that address their children’s individual learning and developmental needs. It hits different when it’s about religion or distrust of public schools, you know?)

This exercise is beyond flawed from the start.

Our community is understandably and rightly upset about teachers losing their jobs. People want and deserve accountability, but the conversation is getting reduced to oversimplified numbers that don’t reflect how school systems actually function – or where the solution lies within them.

We have to admit: public schools are facing a perfect storm of financial problems. And some of that is a self-induced result of their choices and complacency that allowed the situation to deteriorate over time.

We don’t need math to know that things just aren’t adding up when it comes to what students in public school are experiencing and losing. And that it will continue unless we change the way we listen, learn, and advocate.

If we really want to protect our teachers, our students, and the strength of our schools, then we have to move beyond simplified math that represents our values, but lacks collective action…and the reminder that there are more people who believe in public schools than don’t.

As people who rely on and respect public schools, we have to be honest about what’s actually driving these decisions, and we have to be willing to work together to address it. We have to be willing to ask the hard questions in the face of emotional situations.

That won’t be easy. But it’s nothing compared to watching my child enter the public school system while the resources that support it are steadily being stripped away. So here are my hard questions:

How do we stop this from getting worse, and are we actually willing to try something different?

Are we willing to step outside our comfort zones and talk to people we don’t already agree with?

Can we put political labels aside long enough to decide what’s right for our kids, and not our parties?

Can we replace our anger or complacency with curiosity? Will people believe me when I say it can be fun and not take away from their lives or sanity?

Will they believe me when I say we really do have a clear path towards righting this ship.

Will other parents tell our leaders that if they don’t start prioritizing our children, we will find people who will?

As parents, we don’t have the luxury to wait for perfect conditions; on the daily, we get everyone in the car and figure it out on the way. Even if we’re 5 minutes late.

And finally:

If we’re not willing to do that now, what are we doing to our children?

When they’re in our place one day, fighting for their own kids…will they be any more prepared than we are right now?

What’s your question? Put them below and we can ask them on Sunday.